[b][centre]Anna Marie[/centre][/b] Since the emergence of mutants everything had gone wrong, Anna Marie had never understood why she could do what she could do, for a while she had half believed that she was a demon like her dad had said, but now it seemed she wasn’t cursed by god or the devil, just by Darwin. Evolution had made her into a danger to her fellow humans, cursed to never even be able to touch another human being. For a while she’d had… companions at least, her old team mates had never really been friends, but they’d had something in common, abilities, and ‘mama’, though they never called her that. Then… --- A blur of movement flashed through the air and Anna Marie felt the wind knocked out of her. She gasped in shock and pain as what felt like a bus collided with her stomach. She spun across the floor, crashing into the wall in a heap, she cried out at the impact. A figure stood over Anna Marie, adorned in a costume, her age and appearance concealed by the simple mask across her eyes. She reached down and seized a handful of Anna Marie’s top pulling her to her feet and holding her a fraction above the ground, leaving her toes dangling. Then they took off until they were hovering a hundred feet above the ground. “I-“ The hero’s eyes widened and her mouth opened but she didn’t make a sound. The veins stood out on her face and she froze unable to move, unable to act, only able to stare in horror at the girl she was suspending high above the earth. Then they began to fall and the light in her eyes began to dim, her mouth opened in a silent scream. Anna Marie felt the sudden surge of power, more than she’d ever experienced before, and the fall halted. She kept tight hold of the other girl, not willing to let her fall to her death, and she felt the power and memories rushing into her… --- The diner was small, but so was the town, and the whole area was the kind of place that didn’t pay much attention to national events, so long as they didn’t bother their idyllic existence. She’d been here for two months, moving here in search of work, it was an excuse which seemed to apply everywhere, after all, jobs were hard to come by in the current climate. She still had some money from her previous, illicit activities, but there wasn’t much, and if she simply spent money people might take notice, might ask questions. She didn’t want to hurt anyone, she never had, but everything had just caught up to her, and now she could lift cars, she could fly, and unlike earlier experiences, these powers showed no signs of fading. Still, they had their advantages she mused, as she carefully piloted the overloaded trays to their destination. The Rentons again, they were a nice family, but she preferred it when it was just the mother and father, when their son, a burly quarterback named Sam, was in she could feel his eyes on her. It wasn’t altogether unpleasant, he didn’t leer, he wasn’t rude, but he liked her. It was sweet, and in another world maybe she and him could have dated, he seemed nice enough, but dating was out of the question. Unfortunately, today his gaze seemed to have changed a little, had he finally decided to make a move? Done simply flirting with her when she was on shift? She’d done her best not to respond to his efforts, but she knew the stereotype of playing hard to get, she only hoped turning him down didn’t piss him off, or his family for that matter, she really didn’t need enemies in town, she had enough problems. There were a few hours left on her shift, but they passed quickly, and before long she was walking out of the diner door, coat thrown over her uniform. She would usually change at home, town was small enough that there was no point in bringing a change of clothes to work, she could walk home in a matter of minutes. Although, she sighed, not tonight it seemed. There was Sam Renton, stood on the sidewalk outside the diner, he wasn’t looking at the diner, but he turned as he heard the door and her footsteps. “Hey, Anna Marie, I wanted to ask, are you busy on Friday?” “Ummm…”